Death of 11-year-old rider in Collier prompts call for safety training

Death of 11-year-old rider in Collier prompts call for safety training The death of an 11-year-old Collier County girl in an all-terrain vehicle crash over the Memorial Day weekend has put a whole new spotlight on ATV safety. Online courses are free, and many ATV manufacturers will pick up the cost of hands-on courses for their buyers, she said. Some manufacturers offer an up to $100 incentive to complete the course, Purcell said. Coletta said an ATV park is only a partial solution to safer ATV riding in Collier County. Getting to a hands-on course, though, can be a challenge. The closest sites are in Sarasota and Okeechobee, but an online check last week found those courses are booked up, kicking course-takers to Lakeland. Purcell said the safety institute will pick up the mileage tab and has a program to send trainers to where the course-takers live. In 2011, the ATV Safety Institute trained 1,014 adults and 120 children in Florida, Purcell said. Children as young as 6 can earn the necessary training certificate to ride on public lands, but child safety advocates say that is too young. Bube said. Salesmen are trained to know ATV safety requirements, including the age restrictions manufacturers apply to different size classes of ATVs. It also is illegal to carry a passenger on an ATV if it is not designed for additional than one rider. Safety begins in the showroom at Florida Motorsports in Naples, ATV salesman J. Children don't have the cognitive and physical skills to be able to recognize a dangerous situation on an ATV and avoid it, said Michele King, director of the child advocacy program for the Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida, the lead agency for Safe Kids Collier/Lee. "Most families just pass down knowledge from parent to child or uncle to child," King said. "You can put all the rules you want to on these things - they're going to (break them)," Coletta said. The number of ATV crashes has been declining in Collier County and statewide. Safe Kids USA has called for laws that prohibit youngsters from driving an ATV, including smaller youth ATVs, until they are licensed to drive a car. But just through February of this year, the Sheriff's Office had reported two ATV crashes. Statewide, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported 406 ATV crashes in 2010, the most recent data available, compared to a high of 801 crashes in 2007. In 2008, Florida began requiring ATV riders younger than 16 to complete a safety course to be able to ride on public lands. Florida, along with California and South Carolina, are considered the states with the best ATV safety regulations, ATV Safety Institute chief instructor Amber Purcell said. McMahon said that would take pressure off riding on private land, such as where Ortiz died. "Florida stacks up great against other states," Purcell said. Florida's ATV riding laws rely heavily on safety training to avert disasters, but requirements for safety training and other ATV regulations apply only on public lands. Death of 11-year-old rider in Collier prompts call for safety training Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 04/06/2012